Enhydritherium
Temporal range:
E. terraenovae skeleton at Florida Museum of Natural History.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Mustelidae
Subfamily: Lutrinae
Genus: †Enhydritherium
Berta and Morgan 1985
Species:
†E. terraenovae
Binomial name
†Enhydritherium terraenovae
Berta and Morgan 1985

Enhydritherium terraenovae is an extinct marine otter endemic to North America that lived during the Miocene through Pliocene epochs from ~9.1–4.9 Ma. (AEO),[1] existing for approximately 4.2 million years.

The ancestral lineage of Enhydritherium terraenova can be traced to Africa and Eurasia, but no clear route of migration can be determined according to Thompson et al.[2]

Taxonomy

Enhydritherium terraenovae was named by Berta and Morgan in 1985[3] and is the genotype for this animal. Its type locality is the phosphate Palmetto Mine in Florida, which is in a Hemphillian marginal marine sandstone in the Upper Bone Valley Formation of Florida.

Fossil distribution

Fossil specimens were found in California (3 sites) and Florida (8 sites).

In 2017, part of a jawbone was found in the Juchipila Basin, Zacatecas.[4] Located about 200 km from the modern Pacific coast and 600 from the Gulf of Mexico, the finding suggests the animal migrated across the continent using fresh water corridors in central Mexico.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Alroy, John, PaleoDB collection 19461: authorized by J. Alroy, entered by J. Alroy on August 5, 1996. paleodb.org
  2. ↑ Feldhamer, George A., Thompson, Bruce C., Chapman. Joseph A. Wild mammals of North America: biology, management, and conservation, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8018-7416-5
  3. ↑ A. Berta and G. S. Morgan (1985). "A new sea otter (Carnivora: Mustelidae) from the late Miocene and early Pliocene (Hemphillian) of North America". Journal of Paleontology. 59 (4): 809–819. JSTOR 1304931.
  4. ↑ "Rare Otter Fossil Found in the Mexican Desert". 14 June 2017. Archived from the original on June 15, 2017. Retrieved 9 June 2018.
  5. ↑ Tseng, Z. Jack; Pacheco-Castro, Adolfo; Carranza-Castañeda, Oscar; Aranda-Gómez, José Jorge; Wang, Xiaoming; Troncoso, Hilda (1 June 2017). "Discovery of the fossil otter Enhydritherium terraenovae (Carnivora, Mammalia) in Mexico reconciles a palaeozoogeographic mystery". Biology Letters. 13 (6): 20170259. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2017.0259. PMC 5493742. PMID 28615353.
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